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GREAT 
PYRAMID 

I  OF  GIZEM. 


A  SYMBOL  OF  UNIVERSAL  TeUTH 


BY 

J.MUN5ELL    iCMASE 

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p  Ml  n 


LET    nOT    TME   PLANE 
DIE    OUT" 


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THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


TEMPLE  TALKS 

This  series  of  TEMPLE  TALKS  has  for  its  purpose  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  divine  mystery  proclaimed  in  the  Western  tradition  as 
it  came  down  through  Egypt  from  an  age  far  antidating  the  Egyp- 
tians as  known  to  history. 

Out  of  Egypt,  in  blending  with  the  ancient  faiths  of  Chaldea 
and  Persia,  came  the  wisdom  of  the  IliBbrews,  and,  blending  again 
with  the  philosophy  of  Greece  and  the  mysteries  of  Mithra,  all  that 
superb  system  of  thought  which  has  dominated  the  Western  world 
for  nearly  nineteen  undred  years. 

This  series  of  TEMPLE  TALKS  will  contain  twelve  numbers, 
handsomely  illustrated  with  many  full  page  cuts  explanatory  of  the 
text,  and  will  be  published  at  intervals  of  three  months.  The  price 
of  single  copies  and  of  complete  sets  will  be: 

Single  Numbers,  25  Cents. 

Full  Series  (12  Numbers),  $2.50. 

No.  1  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  OF  GIZEH— A  Symbol  of  Uni- 
versal Truth. 

No.  2  THE  SPHINX  AND  ITS  MEANING— God  is  every- 
where.     God  is  in  everything. 

No.  3  THE  TEMPLE  AT  DENDERA,  illustrated  with  views  of 
that  and  other  temples,  and  -giving  an  explanation 
of  temjde  symbolism. 

No.  4  THE  HIGH  PRIEST  AND  HIS  VESTMENTS— Who  is 
the  high  priest,  and  what  his  vestments? 

No.  5  A  STUDY  IN  SYMBOLISM,  showing  its  essential  charac- 
ter with  rules  for  determining  its  meaning. 

No.     6     THE   BIBLE   A   SECRET   WRITING — Why?      How? 

No.  7  THE  GOSPEL  OF  LOVE— A  reinterpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

No  8  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  MASTER,  a  reinterpretation  of  the 
story  of  his  life  and  miracles  in  the  light  of  the 
Supreme  Science. 

No.  9  THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  CHRIST— Each  soul  has  enfolded 
within  it  the  potential  Christ,  which  shall  appear  at 
the  second  birth. 

No.  10  JOHN  AT  PATMOS — An  unvailment  of  Relevations.  It 
IS  revelation. 

No.  11  THE  PAULINE  TEACHING— The  ancient  teaching  en- 
souled by  love. 

No.   12     THE  WORLD  AT  THE  ADVENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY— 

The  many  streams  of  j)hilosophy  that  united  in  the 
one  expression  of  Truth. 


TEMPLE   TALKS 


5EEIE5  I. 


MO  I. 


TrtE 

GREAT 
PYRAMID 

4  OF  GIZEM. 


A  SYMBOL  Of  UmVER5AL   TEUTH 


BY 
J.MUH5ELL      CMA3E 


i 

p  CliJj  n 


A 


LET    HOT    rnt   fLAME 
DIE    OUT  " 


/4s /^e/-  ^a/W/ncfZ/i 


COPVBI6HTEO 


t9l6 


COPYRIGHTED  1916 

By  J.  Munsell  Chase 

2229  Market  Street 

San  Francisco 


3)Tb3 


C5 


CHASE  &  RAE  PRESS 

1246  Castro  Street 

San  Francisco 


\     w 


Sales  Agent 
FRED  W.  OWEN 
Hollenbeck  Hotel 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


INDEX 

Page 

Invocation    6 

Preface    7 

Introduction     9 

History  of  Great  Pyramid  19 

Location  and  Dimensions  of  Great  Pyramid 25 

Summary  of  Striking  Facts  Regarding  Great  Pyramid  35 


SYMBOLISM   OF   GREAT   PYRAMID 

Page 

Proem 38 

Preliminary  Eemarks   39 

The  Pyramid  as  Fire  40 

The  Pyramid  as  the  Decad  43 

The  Number  of  the  Imperfect  45 

The  Sacred   Number   45 

The  Pyramid  as  the  Four  Elements  46 

A  Mystery  in  Numbers  47 


INDEX  TO  PLATES 


Map   of  Lower   Egypt   11 

Pyramid  at  Center  of  Earth's  Land  Surface 13 

All  the  Pyramid's  at  Gizeh  15 

Sectional   Views    of   King's    Chamber 17 

Pyramid  as  in  822  A.  D 18 

Vertical  Section  of  King's  Chamber  :...  21 

Section  of  Grand   Gallery  23 

Equality  of  Boundaries  and  Areas  27 

Vertical  Section  of  Great  Pyramid   29 

Chamber  and  Passage  System  31 

Heavens  at  Time  of  Building  of  Great  Pyramid  36 


986513 


Snnttmtmn 


O!  Silent  Monitor 
Revealing  to  my  view 
Supremest  thought  of  Heaven's 
First  Lord,  Who  shaped  thee  here? 
Wert  built  by  God  Supreme? 
Or  passed  on  earth   a   race 
More  wise  than  we,  of  whom 
Thou  showest  thought  divine? 

Great  states  arise  and  fall; 
Unbounding  nations  come 
And  go;  Men  reach  to  power 
And  vanish  as  a  dream; 
But  thou — thou  standest  still, 
And  through  the  ages  yet 
To  be  thou  still  shall  stand 
Serene,  sublime  and  true. 

O!    Mentor  speaking  truths 
Beyond  the  ken  of  men 
In  mortal  form  now  shaped; 
Who  made  thee  so,  and  how 
And  why?     Who  signed  in  thee 
The  bounds  of  shoreless  space; 
The  way,  the  reason  of 
The  One,  who  knoweth  all 
And  is  the  ALL  in  all. 


PREFACE. 

To  him  who  is  profoundly  interested  in  religious 
thought  there  is  no  subject  more  in.tere&ting  qv  more 
illuminating  than  a  study  of  the  origin  and  the  inner 
meaning  of  the  great  faiths  that  have  dominated 
mankind  throughout  the  ages,  and  dominate  it  to- 
day as  fully  as  in  any  previous  period  of  the  world's 
history. 

Particularly  is  this  true  of  the  faith  in  which 
one  has  been  brought  up,  and  to  which  he  is  bound 
by  all  the  ties  of  tradition,  of  family  and  of  race, 
as  are  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Western  world  with 
that  religion  denominated  Christian  in  honor  of  that 
divine  principle  of  love  which  animates  and  en- 
souls it. 

To  attain  to  a  full  understanding  of  that  faith 
(in  fact  of  any  faith  that  has  profoundly  touched 
the  inner  consciousness  of  man  and  shaped  his  des- 
tiny during  long  periods  of  his  evolution) ;  to  ac- 
quire a  ripened  comprehension  of  its  origin,  its  his- 
tory, and  its  sublime  meaning  is  the  work  of  a 
lifetime — of  the  conjoined  labors  of  many  men  in 
many  life-periods.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  labor  the 
performance  of  which  brings  with  it  its  own  rich 
reward,  so  that  he  who  shall  have  attained  will  never 
regret  the  cost  entailed  by  the  effort. 

That  Christianity,  in  its  beginning  and  develop- 
ment, is  connected  with  Egypt  is  evident  to  the  most 
superficial  observer.  It  was  in  the  land  of  the 
Pharaohs  that  Abraham  spent  a  brief  season  in  as- 
sociation with  those  who  were  in  high  authority  in 
both  a  worldly  and  a  priestly  way.  It  was  in  Egypt 
that  the  Hebrews  grew  to  power  and  importance,  and 
it  was  in  the  mysteries  of  that  country  that  Moses 
was  initiated  before  he  assumed  the  task  of  leading 


8  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

his  people  out  of  bondage  into  the  land  which  was 
to  become  the  birthplace  of  the  most  numerous  and 
powerful  reMgJous  faith  of  the  present  era.  Jesus 
himself  made  at  least  one  trip  into  the  land  of  Miz- 
raim,  when,  in  company  with  his  spiritual  father 
(as  will  be  shown  in  the  number  of  Temple  Talks  to 
be  entitled,  ^The  Life  of  the  Master'^),  he  went 
thither  to  escape  the  fury  of  Herod;  and  it  was  in 
Alexandria  of  Egypt  that  lived  and  taught  many 
of  the  early  lights  of  the  Christian  faith. 

It  is  also  a  noteworthy  fact — one  that  has  im- 
portantly  contributed  to  the  interest  in  the  land  and 
people  of  Ancient  Egypt — that  it  was  in  the  land 
of  Kem  that  many  of  the  great  philosophers  and 
teachers  of  Ancient  Greece — notably  Pythagoras  and 
Plato — were  inducted  into  the  mysteries,  whence 
they  confessedly  derived  no  small  part  of  their  wis- 
dom, a  wisdom  that  has  served  for  nearly  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  to  make  Greece  renowned  among 
the  nations;  while  in  modern  times  the  country  of 
the  Nile  has  become  of  vital  interest  to  the  students 
in  the  West  because  of  the  great  impetus  that  has 
come  to  the  study  of  archaeology  from  the  discov- 
eries made  in  its  ancient  temples  and  pyramids. 

Outside  the  pages  of  written  history,  beyond  the 
pale  of  modern  physical  science,  Egypt  has  had,  and 
still  has,  a  wealth  of  knowledge  to  proclaim  that 
is  more  true  and  more  vital  than  ought  that  is  re- 
corded in  books,  because  it  shows  a  reason  that  is 
outside  the  measures  of  time  and  space  as  commonly 
understood.  It  deals  with  the  eternal  in  the  only 
language  by  which  the  supreme  facts  of  the  eternal 
can  be  told — the  language  of  signs  and  symbols, 
which  is  always  true  because  all-embracing  and  all- 
including. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  9 

INTRODUCTION. 

It  has  been  pertinently  said  of  Egypt :  *^In  many 
respects  Egypt  has  long  appeared  to  the  scholar,  the 
antiquary  and  the  philosopher  the  most  interesting 
country  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Relatively  to  the 
various  tribes  who,  at  successive  eras,  have  founded 
States  westward  of  the  Black  sea  and  the  Syrian  des- 
ert, it  has  been  universally  regarded  as  the  cradle 
of  science,  as  well  as  the  first  seat  of  regular  govern- 
ment; and  hence  we  find  that  even  the  polished 
nations  of  modern  times  are  accustomed  to  ascribe 
the  rudiments  of  their  literature  and  arts  to  the 
ingenious  people  who,  at  a  period  beyond  the  records 
of  civil  history,  occupied  the  banks  of  the  Nile." 

In  truth,  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  was  old  when 
Greece  was  in  its  infancy.  The  earliest  writers  of 
Europe  described  its  grandeur  as  in  their  time  hav- 
ing already  reached  its  zenith,  and  even  as  being  on 
the  decline;  while  the  philosophers  and  historians 
who  crossed  the  Mediterranean  in  search  of  knowl- 
edge were  astonished  at  the  proofs  of  an  antiquity  be- 
yond their  most  extreme  notions  of  time,  and  at  the 
tokens  of  a  wisdom,  a  genius,  and  an  opulence  of 
which  they  could  scarcely  hope  their  countrymen 
would  believe  the  report.  In  the  days  of  Homer,  the 
capital  of  the  Thebaid,  with  its  hundred  gates  and 
its  vast  population,  was  a  subject  of  wonder  and  of 
the  most  exalted  panegyric — an  effect  which  we 
should  at  once  attribute  to  the  exaggeration  of  the 
poet,  were  it  not  that  the  remains  which,  even  after 
the  lapse  of  three  thousand  years,  continue  to  resist 
the  injuries  of  the  atmosphere  and  of  barbarism, 
bear  evidence  to  a  still  greater  magnificence  than 
is  recorded  in  the  pages  of  the  Odyssey. 


10  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

At  a  time  when  the  nations  which  to-day  make 
the  greatest  figure  in  the  world,  and  influence  most 
deeply  the  conditions  of  human  nature,  had  not  yet 
evolved  through  the  first  stage  of  social  development, 
the  inhabitants  of  Thebes  and  of  Memphis  had  at- 
tained to  a  most  elevated  civilization  and  were  grati- 
fying a  learned  curiosity  into  the  constitution  of  the 
universe,  and  into  the  laws  which  regulate  the  move- 
ments of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

Nor  was  it  only  the  learning  and  philosophical 
speculations  which  characterized  the  brightest 
period  of  Greece  and  Rome  that  were  borrowed  from 
Egypt.  We  can  trace  to  that  source  the  knowledge 
of  those  sciences  and  arts  more  directly  applicable 
to  the  affairs  of  daily  life.  Pythagoras  studied  math- 
ematics in  the  schools  of  the  Egyptian  priests ;  while 
Herodotus  and  Hecataeus  obtained  from  the  same 
source  the  history  of  former  ages  which  adorn  their 
pages. 

The  Greeks  were  the  only  people  of  Europe  with 
any  pretension  to  antiquity.  But  the  wise  men 
among  them  regarded  their  nation  as  an  infant  when 
compared  with  the  Egyptians.  Plato  confessed  that 
his  countrymen  had  no  memorial  of  any  event  be- 
yond two  thousands  years,  at  the  most,  before  his 
time;  whereas  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians  had 
become  proverbial  thousands  of  years  before. 

Whether  the  Egyptians  antedated  the  Hindus 
has  long  been  a  moot  question  with  scholars.  But 
whichever  may  have  been  first  in  time,  this  is  certain, 
beyond  reasonable  doubt — there  was  a  close  connec- 
tion at  some  early  period  between  the  two  peoples, 
who  had  much  in  common.  In  fact,  many  of  the 
distinguishing  customs  of  the  people  of  India  are 
identical  with  those  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.    This 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


11 


12  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

is  especially  true  of  all  matters  connected  with  the 
religions  of  the  former.  Their  temples  and  their 
worship  present  an  identity  of  thought  and  purpose 
that  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  most  obtuse. 

When  some  Sepoys  connected  with  the  British 
army  were  in  Egypt  a  century  ago  they  imagined 
that  they  had  found  one  of  their  own  temples  in  the 
ruins  at  Dendera,  and  were  greatly  exasperated  at 
the  natives  for  their  neglect  of  the  ancient  deities 
whose  images  are  there  preserved.  So  strongly  were 
they  impressed  with  the  idea  that  they  were  among 
the  religious  relics  of  their  own  faith  that  they  pro- 
ceeded to  perform  their  devotions  with  all  the  cere- 
monies practiced  in  their  own  land. 

There  is  a  resemblance,  also,  in  the  minor  in- 
struments of  their  religious  usages — the  lotus,  the 
lingam  and  the  serpent — which  it  is  not  easy  to  be- 
lieve was  accidental;  but  chiefly  and  in  the  most 
pronounced  way,  it  is  in  the  immense  extent,  the 
gigantic  plan,  the  vastness  of  the  conception  which 
appear  in  all  the  sacred  buildings  of  Egypt  and  of 
India  that  we  are  made  to  realize  the  influence  in 
both  countries  of  the  same  lofty  genius,  and  the  re- 
solve to  express  the  same  sublime  ideas.  The  exca- 
vated temple  of  Guerfeh  Hassan  recalls  to  every 
traveler  the  cave  of  Elephanta. 

A  striking  resemblance  has  been  discovered  in 
the  religious  customs  of  the  Chinese  as  compared 
with  those  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  particularly  in 
what  is  known  as  the  Feast  of  the  Lamps — a  festival 
annually  observed  by  the  latter  people,  and  graph- 
ically described  by  Herodotus  in  his  second  book.  The 
Babylonians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Hin- 
dus and  the  Hebrews  held  many  ideas  in  common 
respecting  the  creation  of  the  world,  the  great  deluge 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


13 


14  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

(ah  echo  of  which  was  found  in  America  at  the 
coming  of  the  white  man),  the  dispersion  of  the  hu- 
man race,  and  the  first  institution  of  laws  and  re- 
ligious worship. 

Another  striking  resemblance  arises  out  of  the 
institution  of  castes  in  India  and  Egypt.  The  Hindus 
say  that  of  their  god  Nara-Yana  the  mouth  became 
a  priest,  the  arm  a  soldier,  the  thigh  a  husbandman, 
and  from  the  feet  sprang  the  servile  multitude.  The 
narative  of  Herodotus  bears  evidence  to  the  same 
institution  at  an  early  period  among  the  Egyptians. 
He,  in  fact,  divides  the  fourth  caste  into  several  sub- 
ordinate sections. 

In  the  preceding  pages  we  have  seen  indubitable 
p^oof  of  the  early  and  close  connection  between  the 
religions  and  philosophies  of  Egypt  and  of  India ; 
that  if  they  did  not  sustain  the  relation  to  each  other 
of  father  to  son  they  were  at  least  related  as  brother 
to  brother.  That  this  wisdom  was  brought  into  Egypt 
by  way  of  Ethiopia  is  equally  clear  from  a  careful 
reading  of  the  monuments  extant,  and  from  the  tra- 
dition that  that  country  was  the  ancient  seat  of 
the 'wisdom  which  afterwards  spread  northward 
through  Egypt  to  Greece,  Babylon  and  perhaps  to 
Persia  and  India. 

'The  style  of  sculpture  in  Ethiopia  is  known  to 
havfe  been  superior  to  anything  ever  seen  in  lower 
Egypt.  •; 

.  :  The  temples,  also,  which  exist  above  the  catar- 
acts beat;  a  closer  resemblance  to  those  of  India  than 
do  the;' corresponding  edifices  in  the  lower  part  of 
the  country,  while  they  exhibit  the  unquestioned 
marks  of  a  more  remote  antiquity.  The  same  con- 
clusion, is  further  supported  by  the  celebrity  which 
the  Ethiopians  had  acquired  in  the  earliest  age  that 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


15 


\ 


:rjD5An  sf.ctigs. 


,.^ ^ J 


16  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

tradition  or  poetry  has  revealed  to  us.  The  annals 
of  the  Egyptian  priests  were  full  of  them.  The 
nations  of  Asia,  in  like  manner,  on  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  mingled  Ethiopian  legends  with  songs 
that  commemorated  the  exploits  of  their  own  people. 
At  a  time,  too,  when  the  Greeks  scarcely  knew  Italy 
or  Sicily  by  name  the  virtues,  the  civilization  and 
the  mythology  of  the  Ethiopians  supplied  to  their 
poets  a  subject  of  lofty  description.'' 

Beyond  this  there  is  evidence  that  before  Greece, 
before  Ethiopia,  perhaps,  there  was  a  great  and 
widely  extending  civilization  reaching  to  the  shores 
of  what  is  now  America.  Ignatius  Donnelly,  in 
"Atlantis,"  presents  almost  unquestioned  and  un- 
questionable evidence  of  the  fact  that  there  was  in 
ancient  times  a  great  island  which  sank  more  than 
ten  thousand  years  ago,  in  what  is  now  the  Atlantic 
ocean,  and  that  there  was  the  seat  of  a  civilization 
which  has  furnished  the  institutions,  the  arts  and 
the  civilization  that  spread  afterwards  throughout 
the  Eastern  world. 

Le  Plongeon,  in  his  work,  "The  Ancient  Myste- 
ries Among  the  Mayas  and  Quilches  10,500  Years 
Ago,''  has  presented  indubitable  evidence  to  the  same 
effect.  Among  thinkers  this  fact  has  become  gen- 
erally accepted.  It  is,  therefore,  astonishing  to  hear 
one  who  can  speak  in  the  most  unbounded  enthusi-. 
asm  of  the  arts  and  sciences  of  Ancient  Egypt  say 
of  that  people :  "There  is  nothing  more  remarkable 
in  the  history  of  Egypt  than  that  the  same  people 
who  distinguished  themselves  by  an  early  progress 
in  civilization,  and  who  erected  works  which  have 
survived  the  conquests  of  Persia,  the  triumphs  of 
Roman  art,  and  all  the  architectural  labors  of  Chris- 
tianity, should  have  degraded  their  fine  genius  by 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


17 


il*-'"    r     rLOOR'l    froni,   this    S o ulAyti ay cLs 

VERTICAL  MERIDIAN  SECTIOH  /h>n,Gr  GalUry  through  ANTECHAMBER  to  Ku^sCk" looking  Eastmud 


H0RI20NWI SECTJOM  2SuitAesai>o>r^noorormt orflOOR  fivm,6rGaUi^ i>4/rujr>lAI(TE-CHAHBER&i«V^' 
Sut^U^line,shadin^£imesUnt.  Chssedluit.^/idutg-OrwUU..  Abo  \.  lime,  stone,  tuuL  ^CmnUe/ 


»l*ril    SH»TK.  oiu 


Scale  ofBriUsh.  Inched. 


R1TCHU*$»II,  tOtPI» 


18  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

the  worship  of  four-footed  beasts,  and  even  of  dis- 
gusting reptiles/' 

It  is  strange,  and  yet,  stranger  still,  none  has 
arisen  to  explain  the  meaning  of  the  strange  figures 
of  "the  gods  of  Egypt,''  though  their  meaning  would 
appear  so  plain,  so  according  to  the  dictates  of  the 
teachings  of  the  most  advanced  science  and  philos- 
ophy of  to-day,  that  ''a  wayfaring  man,  though  a 
fool,  need  not  err  therein."  But  the  consideration 
of  this  subject  belongs  to  another  number  of  this 
series  of  Temple  Talks,  that  on  'The  Sphinx  and  Its 
Meaning,"  which  follows  the  present  volume. 


AS   SEEN   IN   822    A.Di 


^3' 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  19 

HISTORY  OF   THE   GREAT   PYRAMID. 

When  and  by  whom  the  Great  Pyramid  at  Gizeh 
was  built  we  do  not  know.  Nor  do  we  know  any 
better  when  any  of  the  other  twenty-eight  pyramids 
that  stand  on  the  plains  of  Egypt  were  constructed. 
All  that  we  are  able  to  discover  from  written  history 
or  from  tradition  is  that  they  stood  where  they  now 
stand  at  the  very  beginning  of  historic  time. 

Various  systems  of  chronology  have  been  in- 
vented to  explain  the  period  and  conditions  of  their 
creation,  but  practically  all  the  authors  of  such  sys- 
tems have  been  limited  by  the  conviction  that  they 
could  not  have  been  erected  longer  ago  than  4004 
years  B.  C.,  when  time  began — or  rather  when  the 
creations  of  the  Infinite  were,  according  to  a  limited 
theological  science,  suddenly  brought  into  shape. 
These  men  have  been  strangely  obf ussed  by  the  idea 
that  if  they  should  allow  to  the  creator  of  All  a  longer 
period  in  which  to  perform  his  work  they  would  in 
some  way  reflect  upon  his  power  and  glory,  and  blas- 
pheme his  name. 

^  Herodotus  ascribed  the  largest  of  the  Pyramids 
to  Cheops,  a  tyrannical  and  profligate  sovereign. 
"He  barred  the  avenues  to  every  temple,  and  for- 
bade the  Egyptians  to  offer  sacrifice  to  the  gods; 
after  which  he  compelled  the  people  at  large  to  per- 

^  form  the  work  of  slaves.  Some  he  condemned  to  hew 
stones  out  of  the  Arabian  mountains  and  drag  them 
to  the  banks  of  the  Nile;  others  were  stationed  to 
receive  the  same  in  vessels  and  transport  them  to 
the  edge  of  the  Lybian  desert.  In  this  service  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men  were  employed,  who  were  re- 
lieved every  three  months.  Ten  years  were  spent 
in  the  hard  labor  of  framing  the  road  on  which  these 


20  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

stones  were  to  be  drawn — a  work,  in  my  estimation, 
of  no  less  difficulty  and  fatigue  than  the  erection 
of  the  Pyramid  itself.  This  causeway  is  five  stadia 
in  length,  forty  cubits  wide,  and  its  greatest  height 
is  thirty-two  cubits;  the  whole  being  composed  of 
polished  marble,  adorned  with  the  figures  of  animals. 
Ten  years,  as  I  have  observed,  were  consumed  in 
forming  the  pavement,  in  preparing  the  hill  on  which 
the  Pyramids  are  raised,  and  in  excavating  cham- 
bers under  the  ground.  The  burial  place  which  he 
intended  for  himself  he  contrived  to  insulate  within 
the  building,  by  introducing  the  waters  of  the  Nile. 
The  Pyramid  itself  was  the  work  of  twenty  years; 
it  is  of  a  square  form,  every  side  being  eight  plethra 
in  length  and  as  many  in  height.  The  stones  are 
very  skillfully  cemented  and  none  of  them  of  less 
dimensions  than  thirty  feet. 

"The  ascent  of  the  Pyramid  was  regularly  gradu- 
ated by  what  some  call  steps,  and  others  altars.  Hav- 
ing finished  the  first  tier,  they  elevated  the  stones 
to  the  second  by  the  aid  of  machines  constructed  of 
.short  pieces  of  wood ;  from  the  second,  by  a  similar 
engine,  they  were  raised  to  the  third;  and  so  on 
to  the  summit.  Thus  there  were  as  many  machines 
as  there  were  courses  in  the  structure  of  the  Pyra- 
mid, though  there  may  have  been  only  one,  which, 
being  easily  manageable,  could  be  raised  from  one 
layer  to  the  next  in  succession.  Both  methods  were 
mentioned  to  me,  and  I  know  not  which  of  them 
deserves  most  credit. 

'The  summit  of  the  Pyramid  was  first  finished 
and  coated,  and  the  process  was  continued  downward 
until  the  whole  was  completed.  Upon  the  exterior 
were  recorded,  in  Egyptian  characters,  the  various 
sums  expended  in  the  progress  of  the  work,  for  the 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


21 


mmrmi  wir  i,  yiiiimii  mrMmmmmmmmww  7 


VERTICAL  iizf\fm fZoofungWestj ^r  KINGS  CHAMBER, also  or 

ANTC-CHAMSCR  SOUTH  CNO  Of    CRANO  OALLCRY,  ANO  VYSC  S  HOLLOWS  Or 

CONSTRUCTION. Aeove  king's  chamscr   crossed  lines  indicate  oranite 


Scaler  of  BrCli^h  Inches 


'  loe      so         0 


i:ji   $M*TM.  on: 


f.  RITCHit  *S9l«.£0U»* 


22  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

radishes,  onions  and  garlic  consumed  by  the  artifi- 
cers. This,  as  I  well  remember,  my  interpreter  in- 
formed me,  amounted  to  no  less  a  sum  than  one 
thousand  six  hundred  talents.  If  this  were  true,  how 
much  more  must  have  been  spent  for  iron  tools,  food 
and  clothes  for  the  workmen ! — particularly  when  we 
remember  the  length  of  time  they  were  employed  in 
the  building  itself,  besides  what  was  spent  on  the 
quarrying  and  carriage  of  the  stones,  and  the  con- 
struction of  the  subterranean  apartments. 

"According  to  the  account  given  to  me  by  the 
Egyptians,  this  Cheops  reigned  fifty  years.  He  was 
succeeded  on  the  throne  by  his  brother,  Cephrenes, 
who  pursued  a  policy  similar  in  all  respects.  He  also 
built  a  pyramid,  but  it  was  not  so  large  as  his 
brother's,  for  I  measured  them  both.  It  has  no  sub- 
terraneous chambers,  nor  any  channel  for  the  admis- 
sion of  the  Nile,  which,  in  the  other  pyramid,  is  made 
to  surround  an  island  where  the  body  of  Cheops  is 
said  to  be  deposited.  Thus  for  the  space  of  one  hun- 
dred and  six  years  the  Egyptians  were  exposed  to 
every  species  of  oppression  and  calamity ;  not  having 
had,  during  this  long  period,  permission  to  worship 
in  their  temples.  Their  aversion  for  the  memory  of 
these  two  monarchs  is  so  great  that  they  have  the 
utmost  reluctance  to  mention  even  their  names.  They 
call  their  pyramids  by  the  name  of  Philitis,  who,  at 
the  epoch  in  question,  fed  his  cattle  in  that  part  of 
Egypt." 

From  the  statement  of  Herodotus  it  has  been  de- 
duced that  the  pyramids — at  least  the  two  in  ques- 
tion— were  erected  by  foreign  conquerors,  who  tem- 
porarily ruled  the  country  at  the  period  of  their  con- 
struction. Hence,  many  writers  are  of  the  opinion 
that  they  were  built  by  the  shepherd  kings  who  are 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


23 


SECTION 

fyerticcub  aiut 
lotwitiuiCfULL^ 

LOOKING  WEST 

or 

LOWeR   OR 

NORTHERN  CNO  • 

e  F 
GRAND  6ALLCRY 

I  N 

*t  OR   PYR? 


ENLARGED 

PERSPECTIVE 

VIEW 

or    TMt 

BROKEN  OUT 
RAMP  STONE 

AND 

THE    ENTRANCE 

TO    1H  t 

WELL. 
so  called. 


riAZZI     SMYTH    OCL* 


RITCMlt  *  SOU.  f  OIN* 


24  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

supposed  to  have  ruled  over  Egypt  in  the  period  be- 
tween Abraham  and  Joseph. 

The  Great  Pyramid  at  Gizeh  has  been  visited 
since  822  A.  D.,  when  the  Caleph  Al  Mamoun  visited 
it  and  forced  an  entrance,  by  more  than  two  hundred 
eminent  mathematicians  and  astronomers,  some  of 
them  spending  only  a  day  and  measuring  only  a 
single  passageway,  while  others  camped  there  and 
worked  steadily  for  months.  It  has  been  measured 
again  and  again,  and  its  general  present  and  original 
dimensions  determined  with  practical  exactitude. 

At  this  time  I  will  take  the  liberty  of  quoting 
from  the  Rev.  Michael  RusselFs  ''Ancient  and  Mod- 
ern Egypt,"  the  following  curious  and  suggestive 
passage:  "Mr.  Wilford  informs  us  that  on  his  de- 
scribing the  great  Egyptian  Pyramid  to  several  very 
learned  Brahmins  they  declared  it  at  once  to  have 
been  a  temple,  and  one  of  them  asked  if  it  had  not  a 
communication  with  the  river  Nile.  When  he  an- 
swered that  such  a  passage  was  mentioned  as  having 
existed,  and  that  a  well  was  at  this  day  to  be  seen, 
they  unanimously  agreed  that  it  was  a  place  appro- 
priated to  the  worship  of  Padma  Devi,  and  that  the 
supposed  tomb  was  a  trough  which,  at  certain  festi- 
vals, her  priests  used  to  fill  with  the  sacred  water 
and  lotus  flowers/' 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  25 

THE      LOCATION     AND      DIMENSIONS     OF 
THE    GREAT    PYRAMID. 

The  Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh  stands  on  the  plains 
of  Egypt,  as  near  the  center  of  the  earth's  surface- 
's the  topography  of  the  land  will  permit.  It  is  situ- 
ated on  the  west  bank  of  the  Nile,  about  nine  miles 
from  Cairo,  the  present  capital  of  Egypt.  Its  lati- 
tude is  29  deg.,  58  min.  and  51  sec,  and  its  longitude 
31  deg.,  10  min.  and  1  sec.  east  from  Greenwich. 

It  is  the  only  perfectly  oriented  pyramid  in  the 
world;  that  is,  its  four  sides  exactly  face  the  four 
cardinal  points  of  the  compass. 

The  date  of  its  building  has  been  variously  fixed 
at  150,000  to  1950  B.  C,  but  the  determination  of 
Piazzi  Smith  is  generally  considered  as  being  the 
best  founded.  That  date  was  fixed  by  Professor 
Smith  by  calculations  based  on  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes,  which  would  make  its  latest  date  2170 
B.  C,  but  it  might  have  been,  according  to  this  cal- 
culation, 27,970  B.  C,  or  53,770  B.  C,  the  precession 
of  the  equinoxes  repeating  itself  every  25,800  years. 

The  Great  Pyramid  is  built  upon  and  near  the 
edge  of  an  elevated,  rocky  steppe,  130  feet  above  the 
fertile  plains  of  the  Nile,  and  125  feet  above  the 
neighboring  alluvial  plains  as  now  covered  with 
sand.  It  stands  on  a  solid  ledge  of  limestone  and 
porphyry,  the  strata  of  which  lie  horizontally. 

The  pavement  in  front,  and  around  the  base  of 
the  Great  Pyramid,  is  formed  of  stones  21  inches 
thick  by  402  in  breadth.  A  chasm  or  crack  in  both 
pavement  and  rock  beneath,  near  the  north  side, 
extends  to  the  depth  of  about  570  inches.  The  build- 
ing, from  the  base  to  the  apex,  is  not  solid  masonry, 
l)ut,  as  clearly  shown  by  the  northeast  basal  corner. 


26  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

and  indicated  at  one  or  two  points  in  the  wall,  and 
the  descending  entrance  passage,  includes  some  por- 
tion of  the  live  rock  in  the  hill.  However,  such  por- 
tions have  been  trimmed  rectangularly  and  made  to 
conform  in  height  and  level  with  the  nearest  true 
masonry  course.  The  supposed  number  of  masory 
courses,  including  the  original  corner-stone,  is  211; 
of  which  202  are  in  place,  and  a  portion  of  two  in 
fragment.    Seven  courses  are  entirely  wanting. 

These  courses  of  squared  and  cemented  blocks  of 
stone  in  horizontal  sheets,  one  above  the  other,  form 
the  mass  of  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  They 
vary  in  height  frorn  19  to  79  inches,  the  first  course 
being  the  thickest.  The  courses  are  laid  without  any 
apparent  regard  to  thickness.  The  first  five  courses^ 
are,  respectively,  79,  56,  48,  40  and  40  inches,  while 
the  thirty-fifth  to  thirty-ninth  courses  run  24,  50, 
41,  39,  38,  and  the  last  five  courses,  that  are  still 
in  position,  are  each  22  inches  in  thickness. 

The  casing-stone  material  is  compact  white  lime- 
stone. The  general  structure  materi&l  is  from  the 
pyramid's  own  hill.  The  inside  finishing  stones  of 
the  king's  and  queen's  chambers,  the  coffer,  the  main 
entrance  and  the  grand  gallery  are  of  very  many 
kinds,  the  principal  of  which  are  red,  gray  and  black 
granite,  black  and  Thebaid  marble,  porphyry  and 
limestone.  The  granite  is  supposed  to  have  been 
brought  from  Syene,  550  miles  up  the  Nile,  as  there 
is  none  nearer  on  the  river. 

The  dimensions  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  in  pyra- 
mid inches  and  sacred  cubits  (a  pyramid  inch  is 
equal  to  1.001  English  inches,  and  in  a  cubit  there  are 
25  pyramid  inches)  are  as  follows: 

Ancient   and   present   base-side   socket   lengthy 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


27 


EQUALITY     OF     AREAS     NT  3 


\  ^ 

\<!-'^y 

\r"'> 

f4 

\ 

\ 

y?y.     \ 

4565-62     \ 

9131.  pS   P.l. 
DireU  Vertieal  Section  ofGr.  Pyf. 


Cirel^  y/ilK  Diajntter 
Vert^IkigTU  of  G.  I^rf- 


sisi 

-sT 

t 

i 

\ 

% 

J?.>v 

SISI 

6S 

Squxure  wiXlv  suU^ 
completed,  by  TT. 


JI626  '02-jiraAcha.niber  lefigUv   f  100   —     SwrCs  disUtnec  fronv  ifve^  eartfo 
Ov  terms   of  tlie^  "bre-cuUh,  of  the^  ZarOu'  .front,  ^olc    to  Tolcy. 


EQUATION     OF     BOUNDARIES    AND    A  R  e^  S  . 
CIRCLES     AND     SQUARES     INCHES     INSIDE    AND    SACRED   CUBITS 
OUTSIDE    GREAT    PYRAMID. 


flAZtl    SMVTM.  OClT 


RITCMIC  ft  SON.  (Oil* 


28  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

9,131.05  inches,  or  365.242  cubits,  the  exact 

length  of  a  day. 
Ancient  and  present  base-diagonal  socket  length, 

12,913.26  inches,  or  516.504  cubits. 
Present  dilapidated  base-side  length,  about  8,950 

inches,  or  358  cubits. 
Sum  of  the  two  base-diagonals,  to  the  nearest 

inch,  25,827,  the  number  of  years  in  a  cycle 

of  the  equinoxes,  or  the  sidereal  day.     This 

equals  1033.08  cubits. 
Area  of  the  base  in  square  pyramid  inches,  3,376,- 

074.1025=5,401.71    sacred    cubits,    or    13,- 

292  pyramid  acres. 
Ancient  area  of  the  square  pavement,  about  16 

pyramid  acres. 
Ancient  vertical  height  of  apex  above  pavement, 

5,813.01  pyramid  inches,  or  232.5204  cubits. 
Present  dilapidated  height,  vertical,  about  5,450 

inches,  or  218  cubits. 
Ancient    inclined    at    middle     of     sides,    from 

pavement  to  apex,  7,391.55  inches,  or  295,- 

662  cubits. 
Ancient  inclined  height  at  the  corners,  pavement 

to  the   apex,   8,687.81   inches,   or   347.5148 

cubits. 
Ancient  vertical  height  of  apex  above  the  lowest 

subterranean  chamber,  7,015  inches,  or  280.6 

cubits. 
Elevation  of  pavement-base  above  the  average 

water  level,  1,750  inches,  or  70  cubits. 
Elevation    of   pavement-base   above   the    Medi- 
terranean sea,  2580  inches,  or  103.2  cubits. 
Elevation    of    the    lowest    excavated    chamber 

above  the  average  water  level  of  the  country, 

250  inches,  or  10  cubits. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


29 


'..\-> 

M 


1^ 


\ 


w 


m 


30  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

Length  of  side  of  present  platform  on  top  of 
Great  Pyramid,  about  400  inches,  or  16 
cubits. 

The  entrance  to  the  Great  Pyramid  is  situated  on 
the  northern  side,  at  a  height  above  the  ground  of 
about  588  pyramid  inches.  Its  center  is  294  inches 
east  of  the  center  of  the  northern  side,  height  of 
passageway  47.24  inches;  breadth,  41.56  inches. 
Angle  of  descent,  26  deg.,  28  min;  length  downward 
to  first  ascending  passage,  988  inches;  thence  to 
Caliph  Ali  Mamoun's  broken  entranceway,  214 
inches.  Thence  by  the  same  incline  to  lower  mouth 
of  well,  2582  inches ;  thence  to  end  of  inclined  pass- 
age, 296  inches;  thence  horizontally  to  north  side 
of  subterranean  chamber,  324  inches.  Whole  length 
of  descending  passage,  4,004  inches. 

The  length  of  the  subterranean  chamber,  from 
east  to  west,  is  552  inches;  breadth,  north  to  south, 
325  inches;  length  of  ascending  passage  leading 
southward,  988  inches;  length  from  ascending 
passage  to  the  Grand  Gallery  is  1542.4  inches;  angle 
of  the  floor's  ascent  southward,  26  deg.,  8  min.  The 
length  of  the  Grand  Gallery,  north  to  south,  1882 
inches;  angle  of  ascent  southward,  26  deg.,  17  min; 
vertical  height,  average,  339.5  inches. 

The  ante-chamber  is  116.26  inches  from  north 
to  south ;  breadth  at  top,  65.2  inches ;  height,  149.3 
inches.  The  King's  Chamber,  entirely  of  granite,  is 
412.132  inches  long,  206.066  inches  wide  and  230.- 
389  inches  high.  Within  the  King's  Chamber  is  the 
**coffer,"  named  by  various  writers  **stone  box," 
'^granite  chest,"  "lidless  vessel,"  "porphyry  vase," 
"black  marble  sarcophagus"  and  "coffer."  Accord- 
ing to  Piazzi  Smith  its  inside  dimensions  are: 
Length,  77.85  inches;    breadth,  26.7  inches;    depth, 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


fe■:A«:l^te^;>a■i^rJ•'^ 


V' 


32  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

34.31  inches.  Interior  cubic  contents,  71,317  cubic 
inches,  with  a  possible  error  of  .159  of  a  cubic  inch. 
The  cubic  contents  of  the  King's  Chamber  is  just 
fifty  times  that  of  the  coffer,  the  floor  of  which  stands 
on  the  fiftieth  course  of  masonry,  and  vertically  1686 
inches  above  the  pavement  upon  which  the  Great 
Pyramid  stands.  In  addition  to  the  above,  the  King's 
Chamber  is  shut  out  from  the  light  of  day  by  walls 
nearly  180  feet  thick,  thus  rendering  it  the  best  place 
on  earth  as  a  depository  of  weights  and  measures. 

Everything  about  the  Great  Pyramid  points  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  connected  in  its  use  with  the 
highest  astronomical  and  arithmetical  science.  That 
our  present  system  of  weights  and  measures  is  a 
degenerated  form  of  the  old  Egyptian  is  clearly 
brought  out  in  the  Great  Pyramid  itself.  Its  unit 
of  measure,  the  pyramid  inch,  only  varies  from  our 
inch  by  by  the  merest  fraction  (one  pyramid  inch= 
1.001  of  our  inch).  The  coffer  is  almost  identical 
with  modern  measures,  thus:  One  coffer,  4  quar- 
ters, 10  sacks,  25  bushels,  250  gallons,  and  is  71,250 
cubic  inches.  The  significance  of  this  fact  becomes 
illuminating  as  an  illustration  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancient  (that  is,  prehistoric)  Egyptians  when  we 
reflect  that  the  pyramid  inch  is  exactly  one-five-hun- 

V  dredth-millionth  of  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation,  and 
that  we  have  no  such  accurate  and  natural  basis  for 
any  of  our  present  systems  of  weights  and  measures. 
The  much-vaunted  metric  system,  founded  on  the 
supposed  earth's  equatorial  diameter,  is  now  known 

j   to  be  incorrect  in  a  very  important  degree. 

'  The  pyramid  thermometer  consists  of  250  de- 

grees between  the  boiling  and  freezing  points,  one- 
fifth  above  the  freezing  point,  or  50  degrees,  is  the 
average  of  all  lands,  and  equals  the  mean  tempera- 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  33 

ture  at  the  level  of  the  King's  Chamber  in  the  Great 
Pyramid,  which  is  situated  on  the  fiftieth  layer  of 
stone,  and  the  fifth  layer  of  that  stone  is  thirty 
inches  in  thickness — the  former  corresponding  to 
the  mean  temperature,  50  degrees,  and  the  latter  to 
the  barometric  pressure  of  thirty  inches  at  the  level 
of  the  sea. 

The  casing-stones  of  the  Great  Pyramid  have  an 
external  slope  of  50  deg.,  51  min.,  14  sec.  For  every 
ten  units  which  its  masonry  advances  inward  on  the 
diagonal  of  base  to  central,  it  rises  upward,  or  points 
to  the  sun,  by  nine.  It  is  claimed  by  Mr.  William 
Petrie,  C.  E.,  that  the  radius  of  the  earth's  orbit 
around  the  sun  is  in  the  same  proportion,  10:9,  by 
which  measurement  the  sun's  distance  from  the 
earth  is  computed  at  91,500,000  miles. 


34  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

SUMMARY   OF   STRIKING  PYRAMID   FACTS 

First — It  is  the  only  perfectly  oriented  pyramid 
in  the  world. 

Second — It  is  located  in  the  center  of  the  earth's 
land  surface. 

Third — It  solves  the  problem  of  the  squaring  of 
the  circle.  The  vertical  height  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
is  the  radius  of  a  theoretical  circle  the  length  of 
whose  circumference  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the 
lengths  of  the  four  sides  of  its  base. 

Fourth — The  circuit  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  at 
the  level  of  the  King's  Chamber,  measures  25,827 
pyramid  inches,  which  is  the  exact  number  of  years 
that  it  takes  for  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  to 
complete  one  cycle. 

Fifth — Measured  in  cubits  (a  cubit  is  25  pyra- 
mid inches)  each  side  of  the  Great  Pyramid  shows 
as  many  cubits  and  fractions  thereof  as  there  are 
days  and  fractions  thereof  in  a  year. 

Sixth — By  a  mathematical  computation  founded 
on  the  height  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  Mr.  Petrie  cal- 
culated the  distance  between  the  earth  and  sun  to 
be  91,840,000  miles,  and  because  his  computation 
did  not  conform  to  the  accepted  deductions  of  the 
astronomers  of  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, discarded  the  same,  only  to  recall  it  when  the 
astronomers,  by  a  new  computation  about  1855,  ob- 
tained substantially  the  same  result. 

Seventh — The  length  of  the  ante-chamber,  mul- 
tiplied by  100,  equals  the  sun's  distance  from  the 
earth  in  terms  of  breadth  of  the  earth  from  pole  to 
pole. 

Eighth — The  pyramid  inch  is  the  one  five  hun- 
dred millionth  part  of  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation; 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  35 

the  sacred  cubit  is  one  twenty-millionth  part  of  the 
earth's  axis  of  rotation,  a  measurement  far  more 
accurate  than  that  obtained  by  the  French  when 
they  took  the  earth's  equatorial  diameter  as  the  basis 
of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures. 

Ninth — The  weight  of  the  Great  Pyramid  is  ex- 
actly proportioned  to  that  of  the  earth,  and  because 
of  the  peculiar  combination  of  the  stone  of  which  it 
is  composed,  its  weight  per  square  yard  is  related  to 
the  weight  of  water  as  is  the  average  weidit  qf  the 
earth  to  the  same  substance.    -^  [/C\  (/v  ^  ^  \  \ 

Tenth — The  composition  and  construction  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  is  such  as  to  preserve  in  the  King's 
Chamber  an  exact  equilibrium  of  temperature  the 
year  round,  and  that  temperature  the  ideal  one,  from 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  for  maintaining  the  invio- 
lable accuracy  of  w^eights  and  measures. 

Eleventh — In  the  King's  Chamber  is  a  coffer, 
mathematically  proportioned  to  the  10,000,000th 
part  of  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation.  It  is  substan- 
tially four  times  the  modern  quarter  of  measure, 
which,  like  our  inch,  is  so  nearly  of  the  same  size  as 
to  indicate  clearly  that  our  modern  measures  are 
degenerated  forms  of  those  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

He  who  shall  have  deeply  pondered  the  above 
facts  will  not  fail  to  have  his  admiration  for  that 
ancient  people  quickened,  and  find  his  exalted  opin- 
ions of  the  men  of  the  present  era  reduced  to  more 
humble  proportions.  Yet  there  are  lines  on  the  pyra- 
mid the  meaning  of  which  has  not  yet  been  read. 
May  they  not  point  to  the  existence  of  a  race  in  the 
remote  past  with  a  wisdom  far  transcending  our 
own? 

If   any   one   doubt   the   possibility   of   a   people 
greater  and  wiser  than  those  of  the  present  day  hav- 


ing  been  on  earth  at  some  remote  period,  let  him 
ask  himself,  Should  savages  and  barbarians  over- 
whelm the  present  civilization  and  bring  upon  earth 
a  period  of  darkness  extending  for  ten  thousand 
years,  what  visible  sign  of  the  present  civilization, 
would  remain?  What  stone  would  there  be  above 
another? 


CROUNO    PLAN  Of    THE 

CIRCLCS   or  THC    MEAVCNS  ASOVC    THE   GREAT   PYRAMID. AT   ITS    EPOCH 

or    FOUNDATION   AT    MIDNIGHT    Of  AUTUMNAL    E9UINOX 

2  170     B.C. 

OL  ORACONIS  ON   HCRIOIAN  8CL0W  POLE  AT  ENTRANCE  PASSAGE  ANCLE; 

AND     PLEIADES   ON    MERIDIAN    ASOVC  POLE    IN   O'R.A. 

OR   COINCIOENTLY   WITH    VERHAL   EQUINOX. 


of  life 


// 


Proftti 


n 


•^ 


In  thought  I  see,  athwart  the  vail  of  time, 

Thy  form  appear,  O!   Pyramid,  as  stone 

On  stone  is  placed.     What  matter  when,  or  how? 

Ten  thousand,  or  ten  thousand  thousand  spans 

Of  years,  as  mortal  wisdom  measures  change. 

Yet  this  I  know,  before  thou  wert  I  was. 

I  am  thy  humble  student  now.    In  thee 

I  see  the  sovereign  truth  proclaimed — the  truth 

That  all  is  one,  came  from  the  One,  and  yet 

Eemains  within  the  One,  unfailing  source 

Of  power,  of  wisdom  and  of  love  divine. 

Ilath  space  a  measure?    Thou  proclaimest  it. 

Hath  time  a  reason?     Thou  dost  hold  its  cause. 

Hath  mind  a  limit?     Thou  hast  shown  its  bounds. 

And  yet,  thou  showest  mind,  and  time  and  space 

As  one,  a  boundless  all  no  mind  may  span, 

No  measure  measure,  for  infinity 

Alone  may  know  the  grandeur  and  the  power 

That  dwelleth  in  the  ONE  that  is  the  ALL. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID        39 


THE  SYMBOLISM  OF  THE  GREAT  PYRAMIDS 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS, 


In  the  preceding  sections  of  this  book  we  have 
outlined,  in  brief,  all  that  is  historically  known  of 
the  Great  Pyramid;  we  have  detailed  its  measure- 
ments and  shown  that  they  are  related  to  the  solar 
measurements  in  a  way  and  with  an  exactitude  that 
prove  they  were  the  work  of  an  intelligence  possess- 
ing a  knowledge  far  in  advance  of  that  of  any  people 
of  whom  we  have  authentic  history;  hence  we  are 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  people  who  per- 
formed— at  least  the  man  or  men  who  directed  the 
work — had  penerated  into  the  most  secret  arcanum 
of  nature,  wherein  the  very  riddle  of  life  in  all  its 
forms  was  revealed.  Thence  the  question  arises, 
If  they  had  attained  this  supremer  wisdom,  would 
they  not  have  been  as  anxious  to  put  the  record  of 
the  fact  in  as  enduring  form  as  that  of  their  knowl- 
edge of  sidereal  distances?  And  if  they  sought  to 
leave  such  a  record  for  the  coming  ages,  where  should 
we  more  reasonably  expect  to  find  it  than  in  their 
supreme  creation,  the  Great  Pyramid  itself?  And  if 
it  is  there,  how  shall  we  read  it? 


40 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


THE  PYRAMID  AS  FIRE, 


Throughout  the  ages  men  have  adored  the  sun 
as  the  symbol  of  that  supreme  intelligence  which 
governs  the  solar  system  and  all  systems  of  solar 
systems.  It  is  not  believed  by  men  who  have  con- 
sidered the  subject  with  unbiased  minds  that  the 
sun  worshippers  of  the  past,  any  more  than  those 
of  the  present,  esteemed  the  sun  as  the  supreme  in- 
telligence, but  as  one  of  the  great  centers  through 
which  that  intelligence  manifests  its  powers,  its 
glories  and  its  radiances.  The  human  mind  speedily 
comes  to  realize  that  the  sun  is  the  source  of  every 
good  on  this  planet,  and  that  without  it  life,  as  we 
know  it,  could  not  be.  Hence,  what  more  natural 
than  that  they  should  honor  it  in  taking  it  as  the 
grand  symbol  of  the  greater  sun  that  fills  all  space 
and  is  the  very  essence  of  all  being? 

In  many  Oriental  countries,  as  in  Persia  in  the 
days  when  the  magi  were  in  the  ascendancy,  men 
ascended  to  the  high  mountains  and  there  prostrated 
themselves  before  their  radiant  lord.  This  custom 
undoubtedly  produced  so  profound  an  impression 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  41 

on  the  minds  of  the  people,  when  they  descended  into 
the  plains,  as  to  cause  them  to  erect  elevated  places 
in  or  on  which  to  perform  their  sacred  rites,  and 
these  structures  took  the  pyramidal  form  over  a 
large  part  of  the  earth's  surface.  There  are  remains 
of  many  such  constructions  in  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  the  visible  signs  of  a  great  civilization 
which  occupied  those  lands  in  times  far  antedating 
the  coming  of  the  white  man  to  this  continent.  Sim- 
ilar constructions  are  frequent  in  India,  and  there 
was,  in  the  pre-Christian  period,  a  line  of  such 
structures  extending  from  the  Pyramids  at  Gizeh  to 
Babylon,  where  was  the  Tower  of  Babel,  dedicated 
to  the  sun  god,  Bel,  and  the  Great  Temple,  which 
was  pyramidal  in  form.  In  India  the  triangle  is 
written  with  the  sun  in  the  center,  showing  its  con- 
nection with  sun  worship.  In  Egypt  the  sun  Was 
replaced  with  the  scarabeus,  rayed  to  indicate  its 
connection  with  the  same  religious  concept. 

In  this  connection  the  very  word  pyramid  is  sug- 
gestive. Etymologists  have  connected  it,  through  the 
Greek,  with  fire,  and  it  undoubtedly  means  fire- 
mountain.  Now,  symbolically,  fire  is  spirit,  and  the 
analogy  between  the  two  is  such  that  it  is  difficult 
— one  may  well  say  impossible — to  find  a  more  per- 
fect symbol  with  which  to  designate  the  great  Cause 
of  causes.  Spirit  is  the  no-thing,  the  that,  as  I  have 
shown  in  my  RIDDLE  OF  THE  SPHINX,  which 
can  by  no  just  use  of  language  be  called  a  thing,  and 
yet  is  the  supreme  cause  of  all  things.  It  is  the  cre- 
ator, sustainer  and  transformer  of  atoms  and  uni- 
verses. In  a  like  manner  fire  is  not  a  thing;  it  is 
simply  the  visible  appearance  of  a  force  or  combina- 
tion of  forces  operating  in  matter  so  as  to  transform 


42  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

it ;    that  is,  to  change  its  form  into  new  forms.  There- 
fore has  it  been  likened  to  spirit. 

This  analogy  between  fire  and  spirit,  the  wise 
men  of  the  great  civilizations  of  the  unrecorded  and 
forgotten  past  (that  is  unrecorded  except  in  so  far 
as  they  have  left  the  writing  of  their  history  and 
knowledge  in  their  master  works,  their  temples,  pyr- 
aniids,  etc. ) ,  perceived  and  formulated  in  systems  of 
fire  or  sun  worship  that  have  come  down  to  us  cov- 
ered over  with  many  curious  and  sometimes  exceed- 
ingly crude  customs.  Enough  of  the  true  symbolism 
remains,  however,  to  enable  whoever  thinks  closely 
and  in  an  unbiased  manner  to  see  the  majestic 
thought  that  moved  them  in  their  works  as  in  their 
worship. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


43 


THE  PYRAMID  AS  THE  DECAD. 

Every  student  of  the  philosophy  of  the  past,  and 
particularly  those  who  have  given  attention  to  that 
of  Greece,  have  had  their  curiosity  aroused  by  the 
decad.  This  symbol  has  puzzled  the  world  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  many  centuries  since  Pythagoras 
taught  at  Crotona,  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago. 

In  this  connection  the  very  name  Pythagoras  is 
suggestive.  Philologists  who  have  made  an  exhaust- 
ive study  of  the  name  have  suggested  that  the  ety- 
mological meaning  of  Pythagoras  is  fire  teacher, 
from  pyr,  fire,  and  gura,  the  Hindu  name  for  teacher. 
The  close  connection,  shown  in  a  previous  chapter 
of  this  book,  between  ancient  Greece  and  Egypt,  and 
India  through  Persia,  gives  plausible  reason  for  ac- 
cepting the  Orient  as  the  probable  source  of  the 
name,  while  the  similarity — almost  identity  of 
spelling  and  pronunciation — only  serves  to  '".on- 
firm  it. 

In  any  event,  it  is  known  that  Pythagoras  spent 
many  years  in  travel  through  Egypt  and  the  lands  of 
the  East,  and  that  he  was  initiated  into  the  mys- 
teries of  Egypt  in  particular,  and  from  that  land 


44  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

derived  no  small  part  of  the  teaching  which  he  after- 
wards expounded  to  his  countrymen.  Therefore,  it 
would  seem  more  reasonable  that  he  obtained  the 
symbolism  of  the  Decad  from  the  priests  of  Egypt 
than  that  he  created  it  de  nova. 

When  one  approaches  a  pyramid  he  perceives 
that  it  has  four  sides  and  four  equal  base-lines.  Now 
the  four,  which  is  the  quatenary,  is  the  number  of 
triune  spirit — that  is,  of  life,  love  and  intelligence, 
plus  their  creation,  form — and  includes  the  idea  of 
unity,  duality,  the  trinity  and  the  quatenary,  the  sum. 
of  which  is  ten— the  Decad.  (1+2+3+4=10.)  All 
this  and  more  is  pictured  in  the  pyramid.  The  pyra- 
mid itself  is  a  unity — it  is  one,  and  one  only — yet 
it  presents  at  a  glance  the  idea  of  duality — that 
of  spirit  and  matter,  the  lines  rising  to  the  point  pre- 
senting the  general  form  of  a  flame  (symbol  of 
spirit),  while  the  four-sided  base  presents  its  mate- 
rial antithesis. 

The  triangle  is  clearly  the  sign  of  the  triune,  of 
the  that  which  has  neither  form  nor  substance,  but 
which  makes,  sustains  and  transforms  all  things — 
the  great  unknown  which  is  seen  in  all  things  by 
whomsoever  has  eyes  and  is  willing  to  trust  to  their 
perceptions. 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 


45 


THE    NUMBER    OF    THE    IMPERFECT    BUT 
ETERNALLY  PERFECTING. 

Five  is  the  number  of  evolving  life.  It  is  the 
number  of  man,  whereby  he  is  on  the  cross.  He  has 
five  senses  and  presents  a  fivefold  figure — a  head. 
two  arms  and  two  feet.  In  fact,  all  life  that  has 
evolved  out  of  the  cubic  state  (amobae,  shellfish, 
etc.)  is  fivefold,  while  the  cube  itself  holds  the  poten- 
tiality of  the  cross,  and  in  the  unfolding  of  life  shall 
eventually  become  one.  Birds  have  a  head,  two  wings 
and  two  feet ;  mammals  a  head,  two  front  and  two 
hind  feet — the  double  cross,  afterwards  by  the  law 
of  nature  to  become  the  perfected  cross — man.  This 
number  is  emphasized  in  the  Pyramids,  each  of  which 
contains  five  faces  and  five  points — a  total  of  ten,  the 
Decad  again,  and  the  foundation  of  all  scientific  nu- 
meration. 


THE  SACRED  NUMBER. 

As  far  back  as  we  may  go  in  history,  and  practi- 
cally among  all  peoples,  seven  has  been  regarded  as 


46  THE  GREAT.  PYRAMID 

peculiarly  sacred.  This  number  also  appears  in  the 
Pyramids.  It  is  the  triangle  plus  the  square,  and 
carries  in  another  way  the  idea  of  spirit — the  three- 
fold— united  to  matter,  the  sign  of  which  is  the 
quatenary. 

To  know  and  understand  this  symbolism  is  to 
know  and  understand  spirit — the  supreme  cause  as 
opposed  to  matter,  the  caused. 

THE  PYRAMID  AS  THE  FOUR  ELEMENTS. 

In  the  philosophical  speculations  of  the  ancients 
there  is  a  continual  allusion  to  the  four  elements — 
earth,  water,  air  and  fire — and  modern  men  of  sci- 
ence have  quoted  the  fact  as  evidence  of  the  igno- 
rance of  the  men  of  past  ages  in  all  matters  con- 
cerning the  constitution  of  matter ;  and  that  deduc- 
tion from  their  use  of  these  terms  would  be  justified 
if  it  had  been  of  the  material  elements  that  the  wise 
men  of  the  past  were  speaking.  But  is  this  a  correct 
interpretation  of  their  use  of  the  terms?  Rather 
should  we  not  understand  their  use  of  them  as  in 
some  way  symbolical? 

We  have  seen  that  the  pyramid  is  fire,  and  that 
fire  is  the  symbol  of  spirit.  In  a  like  way,  earth  is 
a  symbol  of  matter — of  the  material  conditions  in 
which  all  forms  take  embodiment.  In  a  word,  it  is 
the  form  side  of  the  Great  All.  This  idea  of  earth 
is  presented  in  the  four-dimensioned  base — the  qua- 
tenary. 

Water  is  one  of  the  great  essentials  to  the  suste- 
nance of  material  life.  Without  it  all  creatures  (as 
we  know  them)  would  cease  to  be.  This  fact  the 
ancients  realized,  and  in  Egypt  they  connected  all 
their  comfort,  happiness  and  prosperity  with  the 


THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  47 

river  Nile,  which  carried  to  them  each  year  an  abun- 
dance of  this  prime  necessity,  and  at  the  same  time 
brought  with  it  the  material  wealth  that  served  to 
renew  the  fertility  of  their  soil.  Hence  the  passage 
in  the  pyramid  leading  below  the  Nile,  thus  uniting 
their  great  symbol  of  universal  truth  with  the  source 
of  their  earthly  fortunes. 

Air  is  equally  a  necessity  to  material  life.  With- 
out an  abundant  and  constant  supply  of  it  material 
death  would  speedily  ensue.  Hence  those  scientifi- 
cally arranged  air  passages,  by  which  this  great  es- 
sential is  introduced  to  the  innermost  parts  of  the 
great  fire  temple. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  pyramid  is,  in  its  form  and 
arrangement,  the  potent  symbol  of  fire — spirit; 
earth — materiality;  and  air  and  water,  the  great 
life  purveyors  and  promoters. 

A   MYSTERY   IN    NUMBERS. 

In  all  sacred  literature  the  numbers  one,  four, 
seven,  ten  and  thirteen,  as  well  as  three  and  twelve, 
have  been  held  peculiarly  sacred  and  mysterious  in 
their  import.  The  reason  of  this  has  long  been  a 
puzzle  to  the  world,  and  many  more  or  less — chiefly 
less — illuminating  explanations  of  the  peculiar  es- 
teem in  which  they  are  held  have  been  given. 

The  one,  four,  seven,  ten,  and  thirteen,  are  each 
a  unity,  a  fact  that  is  demonstrated  by  what  is  known 
as  addition  and  reduction.  In  the  case  of  four,  all 
the  numbers,  from  one  to  four,  inclusive,  are  added 
together,  thus:  1+2+3+4=10,  which  by  reduction^ 
that  is,  by  taking  the  sum  of  the  figures  in  the 
product,  returns  to  one — 10=1. 


48  THE  GREAT  PYRAMID 

Seven  works  out  on  the  same  system — 1+2+3+' 
5+6+7=28=10=1.    Ten,  of  course,  equals  one  by 
this  system,  and  thirteen  reduced  as  follows:    13= 
4=1+2+3+4=10=1. 

This  system  works  out  to  infinity.  Add  three  to 
any  sum,  however  great  it  may  be,  that  produces 
unity,  and  there  results  a  new  and  higher  unity. 
Meditation  on  this  fact  will  yield  more  and  more 
clearly  a  clew  to  the  real  signification  of  the  mathe- 
matical relations  of  all  things  great  and  small — the 
great  with  the  great,  the  great  with  the  small,  and 
the  small  with  the  small  throughout  this  unmeasured 
(by  human  wisdom)  universe.  • 

The  four  pictures,  the  unity  of  threefold  spirit — 
life,  love  and  intelligence — with  matter. 

The  seven  the  union  of  matter  with  threefold 
spirit  on  a  higher  plane. 

The  ten — the  Decad — measures  the  totality  of 
the  four  concepts  with  respect  to  each  entity — unity 
plus  duality,  plus  trinity,  plus  the  quatenary. 

Jesus  had  twelve  disciples:  Jacob  twelve  sons; 
there  were  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  united  around 
the  one  covenant;  and  there  are  in  all  systems  of 
the  Zodiac  twelve  signs  surrounding  the  Central  Sun, 
a  fact  the  signification  of  which  will  be  more  fully 
explained  in  THE  TEMPLE  AT  DENDERA  in  this 
series  of  'Temple  Talks." 

By  meditation  shall  all  these  things  be  made 
plain. 

AMON. 


■■■HIIIIIIIIIIIIl.    111.    .,.  Kill 

A  BOOK  FOR  THINKERS 

A  Master-key  to  the  Mystery  of 
Life  and  Death 

The  Riddle  of  the  Sphinx 

By  J.  MUNSELL  CHASE 

This  work  explains  Unity,  Duality,  the  Trinity 
and  the  Quaternary,  showing  them  to  be  facts  in 
nature;  it  defines  spirit  and  the  Fourth  Dimension, 
showing  wherein  they  consist;  defines  man's  relation 
to  the  Zodiac,  and  makes  plain  many  profound  mys- 
teries, heretofore  left  in  the  dark. 

This  condensed  compendium  of  mystic  princi- 
ples has  justly  received  the  unqualified  praise  of 
eminent  thinkers — one  says :  'It  has  resolved  a  hun- 
dred doubts  for  me/' 

The  San  Francisco  Chronicle  says  of  it: 
''Whether  one  agrees  with  his  conclusions  or  not,  the 
writer  is  certainly  to  be  credited  with  great  ingenu- 
ity and  with  a  sincere  desire  to  find  in  things  mate- 
rial an  evidence  of  the  truth  in  the  highest  spirituxjil 
teachings,^* 

PAPER  50  CENTS  CLOTH  $1.00 

J.  Munsell  Chase,  2229  Market  Street,  S.  F.,  Cal. 

Illilllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllll 


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Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  due  dote 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


REC.CId/WOZ'eO 


MAR24B1 


JUN  131983 


JANgSra 


ADTODISCnRc  F: 


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Rec,    wuf  14  •» 


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MAY  1  5  1995 


JULATION  DEFT 


REC  CIR  |||flL25  tgjRARY  USEQNIY 


FEB  n «  mi 


HON  DEf  T. 


veo- 


FEB  0  8  1996 


a"ION  DEPT. 


^M 1  B  2001 


RIOfntt"  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 

FORM  NO.  DD6,  60m,  3/80  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


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